NOAA’s Fisheries Service
Publishes Draft Recovery Plan for Washington’s Lake Ozette Sockeye Salmon
NOAA’s Fisheries Service, the federal agency charged with protecting
northwest salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act, has published
and is seeking public comment on a proposed plan to recover threatened
sockeye salmon in Lake Ozette, its shore, tributaries and the Ozette
River. The plan took two years to develop with input from local citizens
and landowners. Recovery plans are a requirement for species listed under
the ESA.
The 7,550-acre lake, in Washington’s Olympic National Park on the Olympic
Peninsula, is the state’s third largest. Lake Ozette sockeye salmon were
listed as threatened under the ESA in 1999.
The Lake Ozette sockeye proposed plan is part of a larger commitment made
by NOAA’s Fisheries Service to develop salmon recovery plans throughout
the region. Elements of more than 60 subbasin and watershed plans from all
across the northwest are being incorporated into larger regional recovery
plans for salmon and steelhead in the interior Columbia basin, the Snake
River basin, the Oregon coast and Puget Sound areas. Three of these plans
and part of a fourth have already been completed and are now being
implemented.
The goal of the plan in part is for naturally spawning Lake Ozette sockeye
that are sufficiently abundant, productive, and diverse to provide
significant ecological, cultural, social and economic benefits. The plan
looks toward rebuilding Lake Ozette sockeye to levels that will provide
ecological, cultural, social, and economic benefits. The proposed recovery
plan is a roadmap and resource for people and organizations willing to
take action to help recover sockeye. It provides a range of recovery
actions that address the factors affecting sockeye at all stages of its
life cycle.
The plan has objective, measurable criteria that if met, would lead to
having these sockeye removed from the Endangered Species list, and include
standards of abundance, productivity, distribution and diversity.
The proposed plan was produced over two years by NOAA’s Fisheries Service
with the active participation of the Lake Ozette Steering Committee, a
group made up of local citizens, landowners, forest managers, biologists
and representatives of several county, state, tribal and federal entities,
and the Washington governor’s salmon recovery office. NOAA Fisheries
Service’s Puget Sound technical recovery team developed the population and
biological goals that are the technical basis for the proposed plan.
The agency said it would set a schedule of public workshops in Port
Angeles and Sekiu, Wash., over the next several weeks to discuss the
draft. A final recovery plan could come as early as the end of this year.
Locally generated recovery plans for other listed salmon populations in
the northwest are expected this year and next.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S.
Commerce Department, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and
national safety through the prediction and research of weather and
climate-related events and information service delivery for
transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's
coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth
Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal
partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a
global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes,
predicts and protects.
NOAA’s Fisheries Service is dedicated to protecting and preserving our
nation’s living marine resources and their habitat through scientific
research, management and enforcement. NOAA Fisheries Service provides
effective stewardship of these resources for the benefit of the nation,
supporting coastal communities that depend upon them, and helping to
provide safe and healthy seafood to consumers and recreational
opportunities for the American public.
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Contact: Brian Gorman
206-526-6613
